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Czar Alexander ll is assassinated by the terrorist group "People's Will"
Czar Alexander ll, the ruler of Russia since 1855, is killed in the streets of St. Petersburg by a bomb thrown by a member of the revolutionary “People’s Will” group. In 1870, The People’s Will, organized employed terrorism and assassination in their attempt to overthrow Russian’s czarist autocracy. On March 13, 1881,they murdered officials and made several attempts on the czar’s life before finally assassinating him. -
Nicholas ll crowned Czar of Russia
When Alexander ll the Czar of Russia was assassinated his son Nicholas ll was crowned the Czar of Russia. Nicholas wasn’t trained to rule, which did not help autocracy he sought to preserve in the era that need change. He didn’t inspire the fear or respect his father had commanded. He made the moderate reformers mad because he called their goals, “senseless dreams.” -
Bloody Sunday
Sunday morning in St. Petersburg on January 9, 1905, some 150,000 people gathered at the six designated assembly points to coverage on the Winter Palace and the present a petition to the Tsar, Nicholas ll. The march was organized by an Orthodox priest, Father George Gapon, head of the Assembly of Russian Factory and Mill Workers. At the beginning of January, when four of his members were sacked from their jobs, he started a strike which spread rapidly until 120,000 workers were out. -
World War l begins
After the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand, World War l began in 1914 and lasted until 1918.During the conflict, Germany, Austria Hungary, Bulgaria and the Ottoman Empire fought against Great Britain, France, Russia, Italy, Romania, Japan and the United States. Ties and treaties bound countries to assist each other in time of war. When the time came, they started choosing sides. The United States declared neutrality until German submarine warfare threatened American commercial shipping. -
Bolshevik uprising fails in Petrograd
In April 1917, Lenin returned to Russia, with the assistance of the Germans. He at once took control and direction over the Bolsheviks and began to make preparations for seizing power. Lenin made a serious misjudgement which could have led to disaster for the Bolsheviks.Only small numbers of soldiers and sailors actively supported the Bolsheviks and the uprising was suppressed by loyal troops. A number of Bolshevik leaders were arrested and Lenin fled to Finland. -
The October Revolution- The Bolsheviks take over Petrograd
The Provisional Government was very unpopular. It failed to end the war. It was blamed for food shortages and rising prices. It failed to give land to peasants.The Bolsheviks took advantage of the unpopularity of the Provisional Government and increased its support. Lenin promised to bring an end to the war, to give land to peasants, to give workers control of factories, to take control of the banks and to give power to soviets of workers and soldiers set up throughout Russia. -
The February Revolution begins
The demonstrators clamoring for bread took to the streets of the Russian capital of Petrograd on March 8, 1917. Supported by 90,000 men and women on the strike, the protesters clashed with police, refusing to leave the streets. On March 10, the strike spread among Petrograd’s workers, and mobs of workers destroyed police stations. Several factories elected deputies to the Petrograd Soviet of workers, following the model devised during the Revolution of 1905. -
Czar Nicholas ll abdicates
During the February Revolution, Czar Nicholas ll is forced to abdicate the throne by the Petrograd insurgents. Nicholas was neither trained which did not help the autocracy he sought to preserve in an era desperate for change. In March 1917, the army garrison at Petrograd joined striking workers in demanding socialist reforms, and Czar Nicholas ll was forced to abdicate. After a secret meeting, a death sentence was passed on the imperial family. -
Lenin returns from exile and arrives in Petrograd via a sealed train
Lenin returns to Petrograd after a decade of exile to take the reins of the Russian Revolution. Lenin was drawn to the revolutionary cause after his brother was executed in 1887 for plotting to assassinate Czar Alexander ll. He studied law and took up practice in Petrograd where he moved in revolutionary Marxist circles. In December 1895, Lenin and the other leaders of the Union were arrested. Lenin was jailed for a year and then exiled to Siberia for a term of three years. -
The Bolshevik Party changes its name to the Communist Party
The common people were denied education and were open to propaganda under the Czar. One of the smallest parties at the beginning of the Civil War was the Communist party but were the best organized and committed.Calling themselves the majority party was brilliant bringing many of the peasants who wanted to be with winning side to support the Communist. After the Communist won the Civil War they quit calling themselves the Bolsheviks and went back to calling themselves the Communists. -
Russian Civil War begins
The Russian Civil War was to tear Russia apart for three years between 1918 and 1921. After November 1917, the civil war occured, many groups had formed that opposed Lenin’s Bolsheviks. The groups were called monarchists, militarists, and for a short time, foreign nations. They were known as the Whites while the Bolsheviks were known as the Reds. At the end of 1917, the Bolsheviks only effectively controlled Petrograd, Moscow and the territory between both cities. -
The Capital of Russia is changed from St. Petersburg to Moscow
By the beginning of 1918 the German troops were so close to Petrograd that the Bolshevik government of Vladimir Lenin decided to move the capital to Moscow, which was still far from the front. Hence Petrograd was left to be just a regional center. Further change occured, when many of the street names were altered according to the revolutionary fashion of the day. A number of Revolutionary monuments were erected, but most of them were made of the cheapest materials and did not last long. -
Russia withdraws from World War l
The Bolsheviks signed the Treaty of Brest Litovsk leaving them not part of the Allies. The Treaty of Brest Litovsk gave independence to its Polish and Baltic territories. Germany agreed to a truce and peace talks with Russia. Germany’s troops starting moving towards St. Petersburg, which made Lenin sign that Treaty of Brest Litovsk. Germany thought hoped that Russia’s territories would fall under their sway, but instead led to dooming Germany to demilitarization and Allied domination. -
Czar Nicholas ll and his family are executed
In Yekaterinburg, Russia, Czar Nicholas ll and his family are executed by the Bolsheviks. In March 1917, revolution broke out on the streets of Petrograd and Nicholas was forced to abdicate his throne later that month. On July 16, Nicholas and his family were being gunned down in a hail of gunfire in a cellar of the house they were being held.Those who were still breathing when the smoke cleared were stabbed to death. -
Russian Civil war ends
Lenin negotiated peace with Germany and therefore an end to Russia’s role in World War l. The Bolsheviks were made to fights for control of the country. The Russian Civil War raged from 1918 until the start of 1921.The Bolsheviks were surrounded, often outnumbered by their opponents, and had no experienced military commanders. By the start of 1921, the Bolsheviks had defeated their enemies and gained a complete victory. -
The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics established
The new communist state was the successor to the Russian Empire and the first country in the world to be based on Marxist socialism. After the revolutionary Russia, the Union of the Soviet Socialists Republics is established. Soviet industry was owned and managed by the state, and agricultural land was divided into state-run collective farms. In the decades after it was established, the Russian-dominated Soviet Union grew into one of the world’s most powerful and influential states. -
Lenin dies
In the early 1890s, Lenin abandoned his law career to devote himself to Marxist study and the provocation of revolutionary activity among Russian workers. Arrested and exiled to Siberia in 1897, he later traveled to Western Europe, where in 1903 he established the Bolshevik faction of the Russian Social Democratic Workers’ Party. The Bolsheviks sought to overthrow the czarist government and set up a Marxist government in its place.
